Mavericks, tinkerers & technologists

As part of its mission to develop a new branch of engineering through teaching, research, artistic & cultural collaborations and engaging with industry partners, the ANU School of Cybernetics led by Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell has a keen interest in histories of science and technology and large-scale systems. Pre-histories help inform our understanding of present versions of those systems, as well as provide critical frameworks within which to explore present and future systems.

Through pre-histories, we learn from early experimenters – the people who tinkered around with systems and technologies in random places, eventually creating innovative breakthroughs. These inspiring mavericks show how it is possible to take action before what is actually possible is known, to imagine better futures and innovate to solve incredibly urgent, complex, global problems.

Since joining the School in March I’ve delighted in learning about the legendary Florence Violet McKenzie, Australia's first female electrical engineer, and the founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps. Affectionately known as "Mrs Mac", she taught hundreds of men and women morse code and visual signalling, campaigning successfully to have some of her female trainees accepted into the all-male Navy, thereby originating the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service in an urgent time of war.

The first Australian woman to take out an amateur radio operator's licence, Mrs Mac was a pioneer of technical education who set up her own electrical contracting business in 1918, and apprenticed herself to it, in order to meet the requirements of the Diploma in Electrical Engineering at Sydney Technical College. Her Wireless Shop in Sydney's Royal Arcade was renowned amongst Sydney radio experimenters and hobbyists. A correspondent with Albert Einstein in the post-war years, Mrs Mac founded The Wireless Weekly in 1922, established the Electrical Association for Women in 1934 and wrote the first "all-electric cookbook" in 1936. You can read all about Florence Violet McKenzie in this Dictionary of Sydney entry by historian Catherine Freyne. It's also worth noting that Professor Bell holds the Florence McKenzie Chair at ANU.

Another cybernetic pre-history of current interest to the School is the remarkable story of the first overland telegraph line that ran from Adelaide to Darwin and the various systems involved in its establishment to launch Australian telegraphy in the 1870s. Powered by thousands of beaker-shaped batteries known as gravity cells, the telegraph line involved 36,000 poles constructed over 2500 kilometres, much of it not yet surveyed.

The ambitious project took place during a time of conflicts between Indigenous peoples and settlers, including several deadly encounters. It encompassed cutting edge technology and overcame environmental challenges, creating new kinds of work and commerce and forever changing the ways Australia engaged with Europe. When in August 1872 the cable was connected, the time it took to transmit information from the UK to Australia was reduced from 7 weeks to 5 minutes.

This was incredible innovation led by a group of random people in a frontier environment who, when they began to address this problem, did not yet know what was possible. You can learn more by watching Professor Bell’s recent speech to the Energy Networks 2022 Conference.

Such stories provide great examples of how innovation systems are often cobbled together in unlikely places amidst cultural traditions and environmental limitations. Among cybernetic lessons to learn as articulated so well by Professor Bell in the Energy Networks address is that every time we do anything, we are talking about systems – each containing innovation equations comprised of many parts and people from diverse backgrounds. How do we encourage them to keep imagining and provide them with access to knowledge and ideas to bring about global change?

In thinking about the future across a unique blend of education, research and engagement, students at the School of Cybernetics are encouraged to consider pre-histories and stories from diverse voices to ask new questions about the future based on reinventions of the past. Looking at histories and the relationships between many systems is a key part of addressing some of the challenges posed by technology at scale in order to create futures that are fair, safe and sustainable.

Please get in touch with me if you’d like to discuss these ideas and how they might relate to the work you do.